Jeweller Mike Pinkesz, co-founder of Break Up Gems, based in Montreal, is aiming to sell commemorative jewellery to divorced women.(Christinne Muschi For The Globe and Mail)

Mr. Pinkesz and his business partner Jay Ryan think they can make big bucks off broken marriages. About 40 per cent of Canadian marriages end in divorce, and the entrepreneurs have noticed that more people are celebrating those breakups.(Christinne Muschi For The Globe and Mail)

Mr. Pinkesz hopes that once women remove their wedding rings, they’ll want to buy something new to put on their now bare digits. “People are looking for a meaningful way to bring closure to their past and celebrate their new start,” he says.(Christinne Muschi For The Globe and Mail)

But the seven-person firm has had trouble generating business. While they won’t reveal their revenue, they say the company is not meeting its 2014 projections. The website receives about 1,200 unique visitors a month, but only 3 per cent make a purchase.(Christinne Muschi For The Globe and Mail)

The business needs to create a new market for divorce rings. Other companies operate in this space, but it is still considered a new, and mostly unknown, product category. “People are not looking for this type of jewellery,” Mr. Ryan says.(Christinne Muschi For The Globe and Mail)

Another example of jewellery made by Break Up Gems.

More jewellery made by Break Up Gems, this one for men.

The founders admit that part of the problem could be their company name. It isn’t the most positive of monikers. They have considered changing it and recently bought the domain name freedomgems.com.

The celebration of divorce is still a new idea, Mr. Pinkesz adds, “but this trend is increasing.”(Christinne Muschi For The Globe and Mail)

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